Why You Need to Know Stanley A. Deal

WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW HIM: Because he has a goal to increase revenue for his roughly $14 billion division to $50 billion over the next five to 10 years, and he’s looking for both organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions to achieve it.

Stan Deal, a veteran Boeing executive who leads the Chicago-based aerospace giant’s new Global Services unit, moved here recently from Seattle, where the company’s Commercial Airplane division has its headquarters. Another major Boeing division—Defense, Space, & Security—operates out of Washington, D.C., and the company created Global Services, its third and newest major unit, late last year, in part to support the other two.

Deal’s division, which focuses on providing cost-competitive services for commercial, defense, and space customers, “regardless of the equipment’s original manufacturer,” then proceeded to spend several months setting up its systems and deciding where its headquarters should be.

Leadership of Boeing’s new Global Services unit moved into this building in Plano’s Legacy West development in July. (courtesy of Legacy West)

“We looked at a number of states” before settling on North Texas, Deal said the other day, sitting in the company’s offices in West Plano’s Legacy West development. “We liked the business environment, the location in the central U.S., and the infrastructure here, including the airports. This was a natural fit for us.”

It doubtless didn’t hurt that two of Boeing’s major customers, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, are also located in Dallas-Fort Worth. In July, the Global Services division moved into 18,000 square feet on the third floor of the 5905 Legacy Drive building, where roughly 50 people work. Deal said the headquarters employees, who focus on areas ranging from finance and IT to communications and human resources, could see their numbers increase to 90 or 100 by year’s end.

In all, the Global Services unit boasts about 20,000 employees in more than 40 states and 70 countries around the world. Boeing has about 3,700 employees in Texas, half of them under the Global Services umbrella. Among them are 1,000 workers at Aviall, a parts supplier and maintenance operation in Irving, and others at a military-aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in San Antonio.

With service offerings including digital aviation and analytics; engineering, modification, and maintenance; supply chain management; and training and professional services, Deal’s division represents one of the biggest “growth opportunities for the future,” Boeing Co. Chairman, President, and CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said.

Deal’s division represents one of the biggest “growth opportunities for the future,” Boeing Chairman, President, and CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said.

The man he’s tasked with making it happen grew up on a farm outside Bloomington, Illinois, where his family raised mostly corn and soybeans on 2,000 acres. Deal “walked beans,” baled hay, and, as a teenager, ran a neighbor’s apple orchard before deciding to pursue aviation, following in the footsteps of an uncle who flew crop-dusting planes. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, then earned an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Deal joined Boeing in 1986 and over the years has risen steadily through the ranks. Before taking the reins at Global Services, he’d most recently been senior vice president of Commercial Aviation Services, which provided customer support and services to airlines and leasing companies worldwide. (CAS is now included in Global Services.) Before that, Deal managed the company’s supply chain, helped lead a sales and marketing operation, and oversaw “integrated product teams” for the 717 aircraft program. Today he’s an executive vice president of The Boeing Co. and a member of its executive council.

Boeing has a roughly 50 percent share of the civilian and military aviation markets, experts say. In the fast-growing support and services “aftermarket,” however, Boeing’s share is just 7 percent for commercial and 9 percent for defense.

And, that’s where Global Service’s ambitious growth goal comes in. “We’re under-penetrated for the size we are,” Deal concedes. If his new division performs as expected in Plano, that may not be the case for long.